This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Dave
Thompson is an internationally known music writer, having written books on
James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Kurt Cobain, Judas Priest, Cream,
Deep Purple and many more. He has written stuff for Cleopatra records,
Goldmine, Rolling Stone and many others.

The
book does not take a birth to now approach and skips around here and there for
the first half of the book and then takes you from 1967-1977, talking about the
development of all the Pink Floyd records, movie soundtracks (both published and
aborted), solo records, etc.. There is a
lot of indepth info about all the demos and early song titles that we used and
almost always changed for the early records. It was interesting that the band
up until 1975, used to work out all their songs in the live setting before
making the studio albums. This was destroyed by the success of a bootleg called
Winter Tour 74 that sold very well and had most of the material that would
eventually make up Animals.

A
lot of great info about the Wall, the making of Roger’s solo albums, his taking
control of Pink Floyd to force his works upon a group that was not really happy
about it. The author is both critical and sympathetic to Roger. It is quite
clear that Pink Floyd was no longer a group by the later 70s and Roger was
basically forcing the band to make his solo works and not leaving any room for
them to all create music together, which is a pity, as that is when they made
the best music. I learned quite a lot of new interesting information.

The
book is very well researched but the author did not approach Roger Waters, who
is still very much alive and well. I always wonder why they don’t contact the
person they are writing a book about. It would allow you to answer a lot of the
questions that the author speculates about in the text. Anyway, Roger is a
difficult personality and probably would be very unhappy about this book and
contents.

This
book was originally published in 2013 in hardcover. IT has not been updated for
the 2017 paperback version, which is a pity as Roger has finally released
another solo record. Anyway, this is a very interesting book and I learned a
lot about the man, the music and Pink Floyd.

This is a real strange artifact from
the late 70s. A bizzare mixture of new wave, punk and psychedelic stuff.The band was formed in Sydney, Australia in
1976.The band was a five piece with
male and female vocals. This record was released in 1979.State is an uptempo new wave track. A Secret
West is a synth driven slower track with dual vocals. These first two tracks
were released on a now rare 7” back in 1978. The next 9 tracks make up the
Slights Still Record and it starts off with Voices of a Drama.This features some intense vocals from Rae.
She also takes the lead on the manic, frantic and freaked out A Welcome
Mystery. Reminds me a lot of Sparks. Pere Ubu also comes to mind. Red Lock on
See Steal features a quite annoying synth note that is repeated over and over
as the beat hammers you with the 1-2-1-2 beat that starts the piece off. Anyone
heard of Faust? Imprint brings back some energy to the record but is also quite
strange especially the keyboard lines that give it this totally freaky nature. Many
Risk is a fast paced one and more guitar oriented but also quite frantic and on
the edge and then just strange. Is New Is reminds me of the Plasmatics without
the heavy metal guitar but with a keyboard line. 4 Hours is a sort of mood
piece but also punky. P is a bit slower with some CAN like vocal lines. F1
is a very strange track Faust meets Henry Cow!Winchsoul brings back a bit of
noisy rock with intense vocals. There are also two more bonus tracks. A very intriguing
and strange but cool album Wow.

For
the digital download you get three totally unreleased live tracks.

The
CD and LP versions are quite different including a different track order.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

The bands previous record LORE, saw
the band heading into a more melodic direction but with some great and shorter
songs. This album is basically 4 album sides, each with a different feeling and
vibe and tracks between 8 and 11mins in length. The band has also augmented
their sound with an 2nd guitar (Michael Risberg), pedal steel
(Michael Samos) and mellotron on a few tracks. The album side long Sanctuary starts things
off. A heavy Elder riff starts things off and then the mood starts to change
with some great guitar after the first vocal section. Quite a psychedelic
section with keys and guitar which leads back into the songs main riff. This
track has many changes and parts but is always interesting. Side 2 has two
tracks. The Falling Well starts slow and spacey and then kicks into a nice
melodic guitar line and the band lays down a groove and off we go. This track
reminds me of Motorpsycho at times. Later, some lush Mellotron is played (by
Nick?) as new melodic textures are created. Staving off Truth starts off slow
and beautiful with some keyboard textures and melodic guitar lines. Really nice
dual harmony guitars on this track, just as there were at the end of the last.
Cool lyrics on this track as well. I love the lines Jack lays down on the bass
in the spacey section. Another cool track. Side 3 and we are Blind. The mellotron and mellow keys that accompany
the echo vocals contrast with the heavy riffs that come out. Many cool melodic
harmony guitars, keyboards are to follow in this album side track that takes us
through many sections (how do they remember them all live??). Side 4 starts with an instrumental (all their
songs are practically instrumental!!) called Sonntag. It is quite hypnotic with
a very steady bass and drum groove and then some trippy guitar parts and pedal
steel. Unique track. Thousand Hands ends the record and is pretty spacey at
times with some drone keys and repeated guitar lines but what a nice build on
this one. The band is continuing to progress and move forward musically but
still sounding like Elder. They used to sound a lot like Colour Haze but remind
me of a more heavy version of Motorpsycho now! The new album is brilliant! A
very cool artwork with nice inner sleeves, and a lyrics sheet as well.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Sidewalk Society come from Long
Beach California.They released a 7” on
the label last year. This is a strange concept but it works. Rather than write
an album of their own songs they have taken the demos from the UK band, the
Action from 1967-68 and made their own versions of these never truly completed
tracks. There are 13 track on the album, with only one breaking 4mins in
length. True 60s pscyh pop beat music.. There is a trailer below and also one of the links below is a really cool podcast with the original songs, some from the album and also some input from original members of the Action... Really cool.. Enjoy...

This is a double 7” including songs
from 1967 to the present by Tony Durant, the main man from the band, Fuchsia. I
am not at all familiar with the original band or cult album that came out in
1971.There are 7 tracks, two per side
except side 2, which features the 8min track, The Nothing Song. Look at the Sun
start things off with a low fi sound and vibe, a chorus that builds up like the
song Stepping Stone. Apparently this is a track from a 1967 acetate! Cool. The
Band, is a new song, the voice, 50 years later is aged for sure! Lots of
strange instrumentation with a small section of classical music thrown in, like
the Beatles would do. This is a very happy song. The Nothing Song is 8mins in
length and again features a string and horn section like the old Moody Blues
but then it shifts back and forth from a cool groovy track to this Moodies like
sound. Very cool song with a lot of parts, including some violin focused parts
(you can hear it below). Piper at the Gates of Time, nothing like pink Floyd,
but another really catchy and cool tune, again with some violin and
orchestration. Fuchsia song is a happy track with a really nice guitar line
with a folky countryside vibe. Box of Destiny is a more laid back again the
violin plays a key role. A slide or pedal steel solo was an interesting
surprise.

The
final track, Just Another Song, again features some more country folk influence. The
release coincides with Tony putting the band together for a couple of gigs set
up by the label in August. A few of these will be available at the gigs.. The 7” will also come with a cool reproduction
of an original paper programme for a gig by the Ottawa Music Company in the
60s.. Great release.

About Me

I am a research scientist doing Diabetes research and I do music journalism on the side and have been writing about music for 28 years now. I also lead an all improvised psychedelic space rock band called the Øresund Space Collective. I also am an avid collector of music.